Almost There: Anthony Hopkins in "The Lion in Winter"

by Cláudio Alves

As the Oscar nomination morning approaches, it seems certain that Anthony Hopkins is about to receive his sixth nod. Seeing as he's considered a wizened old thespian of stage and screen, it may be difficult to recall the days when he, like so many others, was a young actor. In 1968, Hopkins was nearing his 30th birthday when his second ever feature premiered. Thanks to that film, he got the first brush with film awards and might have even come close to an Oscar nomination. In Anthony Harvey's adaptation of James Goldman's The Lion in Winter, Hopkins plays Richard, future king of England, son of Henry II…

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The Most Confusing Acting Categories of the Past

by Eurocheese

NINE women have received mainstream precursor support this year for Best Supporting Actress. Somethings gotta give.

If anyone you know is telling you they know exactly what will happen when the nominees for Supporting Actress are announced on Monday, you should also ask them for a set of winning lottery numbers. You want to know how many actresses have scored the complete quartet of Golden Globe, SAG, Critics Choice and BAFTA nominations in Supporting this season? That would be zero. Maria Bakalova showed up at all four awards for a raunchy comedy, arguably the least Oscary of all genres, but even she landed in lead at the Globes. I honestly have no idea who’s getting in or who’s winning the category… and I love the confusion.

For everyone trying to put together their predictions for nomination morning, let’s look at how some other bizarre precursors shook out, choosing one year to represent each of the four categories. Maybe this will give us a clue as to the current Best Supporting Actress race...

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Oscar race: Supporting Actress Chaos & Supporting Actor Lock-up

by Nathaniel R

don't despair ladies, you're the only two locks in "Best Supporting Actress"

We saw a tweet yesterday that implied that the Oscar race for Best Supporting Actress is now between Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy) and Jodie Foster (The Mauritanian) which felt a bit insane to us. That's a Globe induced fever. Nevertheless the shock of Foster's win for a movie people have barely noticed does maybe tell us that the Supporting Actress competition is more fluid than assumed. So who is leading and who is going to be left out on the 15th when the nominations are announced? The way we see it there are 9 women left standing for various reasons (which is a lot going into voting since it's usually only 6 or 7 by now). Only two of them (Glenn Close and Olivia Colman) feel locked up for honors. Curiously despite the sure-thing feel of Colman's soon to be second nomination, it's unlikely she has ANY shot at a win. Her Oscar win is very recent and The Father isn't quite the contender it should be (qualitatively speaking) given its quiet campaign. But the nomination battle is always different than the battle to win.

Who gets the other three spots?

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Almost There: Christopher Plummer in "The Insider"

by Cláudio Alves

Despite starring in two Best Picture winners and many other movies blessed by plentiful love from AMPAS, Christopher Plummer always struggled to be recognized by the Academy. While the actor earned a lot of golden accolades and nominations for his TV work, including two Emmys, his cinematic efforts rarely caught the attention of awards-giving bodies. It was only in the twilight of his career that such fate changed but that doesn't mean he wasn't deserving before. For example, in 1965, the year of The Sound of Music, I'd have happily nominated him both for his stern star turn as Captain von Trapp and for the malicious sensuality he brings to Inside Daisy Clover.

Still, the closest he ever came to an Oscar nomination pre-2009 was for Michael Mann's The Insider...

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Christopher Plummer (1929-2021)

by Nathaniel R

I thought Christopher Plummer would never die. Which is to say, I thought he wouldn't die for a long time yet. The last act of his career, running roughly from the one-two punch of his second Tony win in Barrymore (1997) and his much-praised Oscar-snubbed Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999) through his mischievously pleasing star turn as Harlam Thrombley the manipulative patriarch in the surprise hit Knives Out (2019), was like a gauntlet thrown down; dare to imagine the movies without me!

We'd rather not, thank you very much. But now we sadly must with the actor's death at 91 years of age...

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